Customer Experiences Improve with the CIO / CMO Connection

Customer experience requires a strong commitment from every department within an organization. It’s important to recognize that contact centers are not solely responsible for the experience a customer has with a brand. In fact, the initial experience often occurs in other ways, such as via social media or other customer outreach.

In order to determine the true experience a customer has, you will need to gather relevant data. From the very first touch point through the purchase process and beyond, data is critical to understanding the customer journey. For this reason, the CIO and CMO must align to build strong customer interactions for organizations.

CMO’s as the Chief Experience Officer

Today, the largest impact on marketing strategies will be creating powerful customer experiences. This shapes how CMOs, and their teams, determine what the highest priorities for the organization’s customers are. Because of the strong focus in this area, CMOs really are becoming CXO’s.

In order to perform the role of CXO appropriately, large amounts of data and analytics is required. This is where the CIO’s role must positively align. Technology has progressed to the level that buyers are now treated as individuals, and data can be gathered and analyzed to ensure the best customer experience possible.

The alignment of these executive roles will only need to become stronger as customers become more empowered and their expectations continue to rise. According to a survey by Accenture, the following five imperatives must happen to improve the alignment of marketing and IT:

1. Identify the CMO as the chief experience officer (CXO).
2. Accept IT as a strategic partner with marketing, not just as a platform provider.
3. Agree on key business levers for marketing and IT alignment, such as access to customer data vs. privacy and security.
4. Change the skill mix to ensure that organizations are more marketing and tech savvy.
5. Develop trust by doing just that—trusting.

CMO / CIO Connection Is Transformative

When these two executive roles understand that technology is the foundation for all we do, they will transform the customer experience. Previously CMOs created strategies and executed tactics and campaigns with some information, often historical. Now with big data, analytics, and marketing automation, information is readily available.

Data-driven marketing will increase a company’s market share by providing critical information to the CMO while improving customer experiences. Of course, this is not possible without the CIO committing to be a part of the process, ensuring that the right technology is available.

There are several ways CIOs and CMOs can begin the journey of aligning for the benefit of the customer and the company. These include:

• Evaluate business processes with the customer at the center.
• Analyze the customer journey throughout your organization to ensure a smooth process.
• Integrate data so you can have a single view of all the customer interactions inside your organization.
• Understand the data so you can develop strong customer relationships and then disseminate that information throughout the organization.

Technology underpins everything we do creating a strong need to do away with silos and have executives engage in initiatives aligned toward positive customer experiences. Customers desire, and can even demand, a positive brand experience or frankly they can choose to spend their dollars elsewhere. It’s up to you to choose to connect the CIO and CMO for the greater good of the customer, and the company.